Malorie Blackman - Noughts & Crosses Series

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Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series. Random House: London, various dates. Designer unknown, may be various. Collected June 2010

This series has simply exceptional cover design that is demonstrative of the fact that minimalist design need not abandon the ability to inform the reader about the content of the book. The Noughts & Crosses series is a science fiction series for young adults that deals with an alternate universe in which Noughts are servants to Crosses. The analogy to racial discrimination in the UK and elsewhere is underlined by the fact that Noughts are "white" and Crosses are "black". The startling, abrupt design highlights this tension and the stark nature of that universe; rather than becoming repetitive and typographic-only, books in the series pick out elements of the title or of the novel while retaining the colour scheme. Checkmate's cover is notably good from this perspective, referencing a chessboard without becoming literal. One caveat would be that the white-on-white title on Noughts and Crosses is a bit difficult to read, especially from a distance. However, the clarity of the design - with a nought and a cross, from the child's game - is such that the type is almost irrelevant.

Cadogan Guide to Egypt

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Michael Haag. Cadogan Guide to Egypt. London: Cadogan Books, 1993. Illustrations by Sophie Morrish. Design by Animage. Cover illustration by Povl Webb, cover design by Ralph King. Collected 28 July Floppy cover, very thin stock but laminated stock - this is a guidebook densely crammed with information and designed to be lugged round with minimum effort and maximum efficiency. Design-wise, where to start with this book? Like Soon I Will Be Invincible, the Cadogan Guide to Egypt is characterised by a holistic design sensibility. Unfortunately - especially since the book itself is great and, I am assured, useful - this design is not so good! I seized on it the moment Elaine brought it out for indexing practice. ( read more )

Archy & Mehitabel, by Don Marquis

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Don Marquis. Archy & Mehitabel. Ernest Benn, 1931.

This book is included chiefly as a curiousity. The oldest edition of any of the books in the portfolio, I found its internal design interesting from a historical perspective. The imprint page is barely existent, and most of the information which would typically be found on it is either not there or in other places. For example, there is no statement of copyright; the name and location of the publisher and author appear only on the title page, while the printer appears on the final page of the book. Interestingly, the design is still very readable and looks good to modern sensibilities. The typography has worked hard to reflect its content: the typeface, which resembles that of a typewriter, is reminiscent of the content in that the poems are supposedly typed by a cockroach (the reason why no capitals or punctuation marks occur: the cockroach cannot hold down the shift key at the same time as it hits a letter. The simple design also reflects these humble origins! ( read more )